


Happy Birthday, Janey

by CelticGrace



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Earthborn Shepard, Origin Story, Shepard's Birthday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-11
Updated: 2016-04-11
Packaged: 2018-06-01 17:11:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6528706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CelticGrace/pseuds/CelticGrace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jane Shepard puts an escape plan into action on her 18th birthday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happy Birthday, Janey

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written as a prequel to a trilogy long fic, it's now a standalone drabble.

While everyone else slept, Jane lay in her bunk, staring at her omni-tool, watching the minutes counting down to midnight. Counting down to her 18th birthday. To freedom.

She’d had an escape plan in the works for weeks, and now was the time to execute it.

It’s ludicrous, her one and only confidant had proclaimed. It’ll never work. You’re gonna die.

It wasn’t as if Jane hadn’t had similar thoughts as she’d plotted it all out; one wrong step and she’d be a dead woman. But she couldn’t stay with the Reds anymore, that much was certain. And that certainty drove her to keep plotting, to push aside the doubts.

11:59. Jane silently slipped from her bunk and pulled up a floorboard underneath to retrieve the bag she’d hidden there. She was positive that she wouldn’t need anything where she was going, but she’d packed all of her belongings anyway. She wanted to make a clean break, leave no trace of herself behind. Well, that wasn’t entirely true; she wanted to leave the useful pieces of herself, her books and less-worn clothes, to those few in the gang who she could claim as friends. But that would have raised questions about where she’d gone, and how much they knew. And that just wouldn’t end well for anyone.

12:00. As her omni-tool buzzed, flashing _Happy Birthday Janey_ on the screen, she crept across the room and out into the hall. That much closer to freedom.

“Where ya goin’, Janey?”

She bit back a scream and a curse as she turned to find one of the younger members of the Reds padding down the hallway from the kitchen, one hand clutching a glass of water, the other rubbing sleep from his eyes.

Silent little bugger.

“I’m not really here, Wes,” she whispered, not moving an inch. “You’re dreaming.”

He nodded, though there was uncertainty in his eyes. She just prayed he wouldn’t remember it in the morning.

As soon as he was back in bed and she was sure he was actually asleep again, Jane continued down the hall to the back door and silently slipped out into the night. She didn’t stop walking for three hours, putting as much distance between herself and the Reds as possible.

Finally, she collapsed onto a park bench. Now that she was out and far away from the warehouse she’d called home for the last ten years, doubt began to creep back in. She quickly pushed the unwelcome thoughts aside. She wasn’t done yet, wasn’t truly safe yet, not until she’d executed the last part of her plan.

She looked at the map on her omni-tool, looking for her destination. The Alliance recruitment office. It wouldn’t be open until 7am, but she didn’t care. She’d waited this long, she could wait four more hours.

At 7am on the dot, Jane stood outside a small square brick building, steeling her nerves before she stepped into the recruitment office.

“Have a seat,” said the large man behind the lone desk, gesturing to one of the chairs across from him. “You have ID?”

Jane nodded, her hands shaking slightly as she pulled up the information on her omni-tool and sent it to him.

He turned his attention to the terminal on the desk and typed up her information in silence. After a few minutes he flipped the screen around. “Is everything correct?”

She nodded again.

“Anything missing, any other details need to be added?”

She shook her head.

He nodded once and then smiled. “Well then, Jane Shepard. Happy birthday, and, barring any unforeseen obstacles in your physical, welcome to the Alliance.”


End file.
